Jason and Ashley Wahler in 2021. Photo:
Joe Scarnici/Getty
Jason Wahler’s wife Ashley explained during a podcast appearance why she stayed in their relationship. Wahler has been sober for 5 years this month
Jason Wahler and his wife Ashley Wahlerare getting candid about the impact The Hills star’s addiction has had on their family.
“Addiction took everything that was very important to me,” Jason shared on the Dec. 3 episode of the Let’s Be Honestpodcast with his childhood friend and Laguna Beach costar Kristin Cavallari. “I ruined a lot of relationships. I ruined a lot of friendships. I ruined opportunities. And it took everything that I had for me that was important.”
Jason first got sober in 2010 after years of struggling with substance abuse and drinking, before tying the knot with Ashley in 2013. But in the time that followed Jason, who works with recovery centers and sobriety organizations, relapsed multiple times, including right before the birth of the couple’s now-7-year-old daughter Delilah.
Jason and Ashley Wahler in September.
Terry Wyatt/Getty
Ashley, who had not experienced a history of addiction in her own family, appeared alongside her husband on the podcast and admitted to not fully understanding the effects of the disease when she first met Jason.
“When the shoe dropped as many times as it did, I was in such a place of disbelief and I was so manipulated by the disease,” she explained. “It’s not like Jason was sitting there wanting to manipulate or hurt me, the disease of addiction is so powerful, it’s taking over their body.”
Ashley added, “It didn’t matter about the family. It didn’t matter about anything. The disease needed to be fed and he was going to do whatever he could to manipulate me to do whatever he could to get what he needed to get.”
However, Ashley, who is currently pregnant with the couple’s third child, in addition to daughter Delilah and son Wyatt, 3, said that she stayed with her husband through his many battles because she first met him when he was sober.
“I honestly truly believe that because I knew Jason when he was sober, I knew his heart and what a wonderful man he was,” she explained, “and I was yearning so much to get that person back . . . I just kept on holding out hope that one day I was going to get him back and that’s what kept me hanging on.”
But the disease didn’t only harm Jason. It also impacted Ashley’s health.
“When you’re surrounded by somebody that’s so toxic, it can make you sick yourself,” she said during the podcast episode. “I lost everything that I thought I knew. I didn’t even know what color I liked. I didn’t know what I liked to do, hobbies, recreation. I became addicted to his addiction. Instead of me focusing on myself, I’d be checking pill bottles and smelling things and I became psychotic in my brain.”
Jason and Ashley Wahler in Nashville in November.
Tibrina Hobson/Getty
Ashley told Let’s Be Honest listeners that she lost her “gut instinct” after being lied to, noting that she was the only person who knew Jason had relapsed. Jason said that working in the treatment space helped him to get better at deceiving others about his addiction.
“This time around nobody knew, besides Ashley,” he shared. “Working with doctors, clinicians, therapists, psychologists, I was able to hide it. I got so good at hiding it that people couldn’t even tell. And I was using a lot.”
Ultimately, it was Delilah’s birth that triggered Ashley to insist that Jason get treatment.
“The reason why I finally reached out and got help was because of Delilah,” she said. “I probably could have lived with the addict for the rest of my life. And I probably would have been the one to die because I was so miserable.”
One regret Ashley had was covering for Jason during his addiction, like calling in sick for him to work when he was recovering from a bender.
“I would have to lie for him, and that was something that I should not have done,” Ashley said. “I should have let him fall.”
Jason is celebrating five years of sobriety this month after a relapse while filming The Hills: New Beginnings in 2018 when he took an Adderall pill. He was open about the incident at the time.
